DeepSummary
In this episode, Chad Moses, the Director of Outreach and Experience at TWLOHA Inc., shares his personal journey and how he came to work in cultivating conversations about mental health with musicians, festivals, and entertainment companies. He opens up about his struggles with depression, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse during his college years, and how a friend's intervention and support system helped him find hope and resources. Through his experiences, he emphasizes the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in addressing mental health challenges, as these issues affect people across all demographics and backgrounds.
Chad discusses TWLOHA's campaign 'Another Day with You' for World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th, aimed at moving people from hopelessness to help, and encouraging solutions to support people through their darkest moments. He stresses that suicide prevention is not just about crisis intervention but about daily check-ins, creating a sense of proximity, and making spaces where questions and conversations about mental health are welcome.
Chad emphasizes the need for a diverse community to inform mental health conversations, as they become more credible and accessible when they honor different upbringings, cultures, and contexts. He suggests practical ways to support each other, such as using inclusive language, asking follow-up questions to understand perspectives, and expressing gratitude through small gestures that remind others of their value and importance.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Mental health challenges affect people across all demographics and backgrounds, so diversity, equity, and inclusion are crucial in addressing these issues and ensuring resources are accessible and credible to all.
- Suicide prevention is not just about crisis intervention but about daily check-ins, creating safe spaces for conversations, and reminding people of their value and importance.
- Small, consistent gestures and interactions can have a significant impact on supporting mental health and preventing suicide.
- Ask questions and listen to understand different perspectives on mental health, rather than assuming or dictating answers.
- Normalize and destigmatize conversations about mental health by using inclusive language and expressing gratitude for the people in our lives.
- Collaborative, community-based approaches informed by diverse experiences are essential for effective mental health support and resources.
- Personal stories and lived experiences can inspire hope, empathy, and a sense of shared humanity in addressing mental health challenges.
- Organizations and leaders play a crucial role in prioritizing mental health support, allocating resources, and creating inclusive environments where these conversations are welcomed.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “The friendships that I made during this kind of dark night of the soul stretch are the friendships that enabled me to exist and to find ways to bring more people into closer proximity with resources for hope and help to grant more of these stories a bigger microphone to make sure that when we imagine what mental health access looks like, that we are imagining people that look like the person we see in the mirror each and every single day.“ by Chad Moses
- “If I'm gonna get super metaphysically philosophical here for you, listener whom I've never met, ever since you came into this world, I've never known a day without you in it. For all I know, this world quits spinning without you here. I don't want to imagine tomorrow without you in it.“ by Chad Moses
- “I don't want to be the answer guy anymore, but I do hope to be a safe place for questions, questions that were taught to me by people who don't look, think, act, speak, you know, insert your own verb, like me. Because at the end of the day, this isn't all about me. This has to be a weird scenario. This has to be based on us or else it's going to fall apart.“ by Chad Moses
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Episode Information
The Will To Change: Uncovering True Stories of Diversity & Inclusion
Jennifer Brown
8/20/21
Chad Moses, Director of Outreach and Experience at TWLOHA Inc., joins the program to discuss his journey and how he came to the work that he does collaborating with musicians, festivals, and entertainment companies to cultivate conversations about mental health. Discover the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in when it comes to mental health, and a different way to think about suicide prevention. To learn more, visit https://twloha.com/